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Latest I've seen about cause of FH fire https://www.electrive.com/2023/08/14/it-wasnt-an-ev-that-caused-the-fremantle-highway-to-catch-fire/

What is not acceptable and is quite common now in Scotland is where the Public chargers are a max 50 kW and these Big Battery vehicles with very fast charging capability are parked for several hours and left to charge to 100% and to even cut out and are locked in and left there. Even where the tariff is 35 pence or 55 pence a kWh with a 40 minute time limit and £1 a minute after that to a max charge of £60. (Park & Rides Edinburgh City, 55 pence a kWh, 60 mins max charge, then a fine but drivers still park, charge, set for 60 minutes and leave the car for hours, no policing of the chargers, no clamping, no penalty / fine.) There are people happy to pay that extra charge time of £1 a minute and stuff the others that just want 30 or maybe 40 minutes on that charger. PS New issue. Certain drivers of certain EV,s that you can use to power stuff like the caravan. Going to EV chargers that are free or cheap and charging the car to use to power the caravan. There are South Ayrshire and elsewhere have caravan sites / holiday parks with a 7 kW AC charger or 3 for customers but the tariffs are crazy at some. I have met people that are staying on these sites in residential vans but coming to the free chargers and might or might get on them, maybe not the rapids because there are ones out of order. Yesterday i was speaking to someone that charged at the site they were staying at because they had not got a charge at the council chargers and they paid £30 to get around 150 miles of range, 70 pence a kWh for 40 kWh to be sure they had enough for their day away and maybe not getting a charge. There are those that just want to charge there car and have not been able to get on a rapid of fast charger because they are blocked by EV,s charging to full. Some by cars i know the people live close by and are just there to fill up free. The visitors are surprised to find that if they get a charge it is free gratis. Then they know why they have not got on chargers. The greed and ignorance of others.

I recently read on the Octavia mk4 forum that Skoda's advice on changing the timing belt on 1.5TSI engines had changed from 5 years or 50,000 miles to 144,000 miles with no elapsed time stated. I therefore contacted Skoda support and asked whether they had changed their advice for the 1.0TSI engine. I have this engine in my 2018 Octavia and so does my son who has a 2017 Octavia. They responded as follows: 'Thank you for your recent enquiry regarding the recommended interval for changing the timing belt on your vehicle. I can confirm that the ŠKODA recommendation for the timing belt servicing on both vehicles is below: Inspection every 15 years or 180000 miles which ever comes first.' I thought this would be of intertest to mk3 owners with this engine and no doubt Fabia owners as well. Thanks.

There have been fires on ships since ships began. Engine fires, cargo fires, petrol car fires, random goods. Frankly the first ship was full of high end cars and a few EV. It’s just as likely that brake fluid leaked onto something hot, or petrol vapour filled an area as it is an EV. Speculation on all fronts is just that. So EV fires can run away when they’re bad, but how many petrol cars catch fire and are serviceable rather than a total write off afterwards? There are far fewer causes for an EV to catch fire vs cars full of flammable hydrocarbons. Putting one out might be better understood but that wasn’t always the case and won’t always be the case as technology changes. That’s fire fighting research and tech but also battery changes.

In past 12 months I have seen zero EV’s on fire. I have seen at least half a dozen fires from ICE cars/vans, one of which may have been a hybrid. Petrol is bleeding nasty when it goes up. For a bit of clarity: Felicity Ace: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60429584 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felicity_Ace No clarity if it was one of the small number of EV or the larger number of ICE that started the fire Fremantle Highway : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Fremantle_Highway ” Investigations There has been much speculation that the battery pack from an electric car caused the fire.[17] However, the cause of the fire is unknown.[18] Investigations started when the ship was moored in Eemshaven.[16][19]”

In China the number of fires involving cars with traction batteries is skewed very heavily in favour of plug in hybrids rather than pure EVs, apparently by a ratio of many to one. BYD seem to be the main culprits, yes they are the largest make of PHEVs but the numbers of car fire involving their cars is still disproportionately high.... The move away from lithium to lithium iron phosphate cannot come soon us as video shows.......

Hi Experts here is update on above very old issue which made to bin the car few times but never gave up, credit goes to very kind hearted Rock star of this group @Breezy_Pete By chance I was travelling to meet friends and Pete was not far where I was visiting , Pete kindly agreed to offer me time and agreed to look my car on sunny weekend , in 3 minutes he found 3 issues in car and to my surprise he found the root cause of all engine loss / EPC light etc which no body was able to identify or they never had expertise. The Pete went logically had data sheet of my car and looked that my fuel-filter which was bought from euro parts ( 2-3 filter changed since 2-3 years) had wrong fuel pressure, since same model had possibly few variants but the fuel filter has same number of inlets/outlets but different pressure regulator values, 3bar or 4 Bar , Pete had list in hand looked everything and when saw the fuel filter he said this could be major issue with my car since it needed 3 BAR as per specification but current fuel filter was 4BAR .. so Pete explained that car computer is getting out of abnormal values because of high pressure fuel and trying to add more oxygen and probably messing up oxygen fuel ratio when it goes high speed .. Thanks @Breezy_Petefor saving planet and stopping my good car going to landfill and pollute the planet , today I have changed the fuel filter and drove the car at speed of 70miles/hour first time without any issue I drove good 20-30 miles. I checked Short Term /long term Fuel trims using dignositics and then were very much under 10% approx 7% I think these values were very dice and changing from -20 to +20 earlier with different rpms . Once again fuel filter pressure is very important for car computer please do check the car manual and never trust any OEM suppliers. Thanks for reading , hope it helps Skodians. Regards raky

It's a glorious evening..........

Which hasn't actually always worked as a suicide device since catalytic converters became mandatory on new cars.

Just to point out that before automatic fuel cut off and specialist foams for fighting them ICE fires were terrible. I would imagine a lot of research will go into how to stop such fires in EV. Maybe they’ll discover dry ice or liquid nitrogen is the answer to stop thermal runaway. Buildings get dry risers, maybe Batteries will get similar channels to distribute something that will take the heat energy away fast.

It was done by the evening, all working now! Aluminium rivnuts installed. Thanks for all the help.

Yeah. I personally don't like randoms washing my car as I'm pretty sure that maintaining your paintwork is low on most people's agenda. 😄 I always wash my car prior to taking it in anywhere so that they don't bother, plus I always hope that if they see that the car is well looked after and clean then they'll treat it with more respect compared to taking it in looking all grubby. I guess you can't go wrong with vacuuming though.

So the petrol EA88 has a TMU, thermal management unit? Servo motors and PCB, just when you thought it would not be possible to further overcomplicate what used to be the simplest component of a motor vehicle 😒

I have considered replacing my Yeti. 11 year old Mk 1….140 TDI 4x4 bought from new. The thing is, the Yeti MK1 is still today the best looking and most practical car in its class. I really do think that. In fact it looks better today than when it came out. Mine has war scares so I think I will just invest in some cosmetics and make it brand new again. There is nothing on the market that I would replace it with. The MK1 Yeti is a little classic so I would think hard before replacing it. Just my 5 pence worth.

I think it's a similar situation for most modern cars these days. A cambelt change on my old Audi A6 (& I think the Superb is similar) resulted a near complete disassembly of the front end of the car & takes a garage the best part of a day to do. Plus, while they have the entire front end all over the workshop floor, they have to replace the obligatory other parts like a water pump because it's "prudent" to do it while they have the access which would otherwise need the front end of the car being stripped again. It all adds to the unnecessary cost the hapless motorist has to pay for something that should be far easier & cheaper to do. By contrast a cambelt change on my old 1968 slant 4 2.0ltr Vauxhall Viva GT could be done in my lunch break & did not even involve removing a cam belt cover or any other part of the car! In the pic below you can just see the top of the cam belt by the radiator filler cap. Not even a cover, although I think one may have been added on later models. An oil filter change, headlight bulb replacement & just about any other engine bay related task was equally as easy. IMO modern car design, from a maintenance / repair point of view, cannot be seen as an improvement over what went before. You can't even change a battery these days without "re-coding" the ECU which needs a PC & software😖 Rant over. Deep breath & a stiff drink.

I think it must be getting bad data from one of the wheel speed sensors. I can't see it being the input for rpm from the crank angle sensor (that would manifest itself in any gear), and as JR has said, the calculation of gear display will be from that and vehicle speed, which I believe is calculated by averaging between some or all of the wheel speed sensors. The error may get bigger with wheel speed, until it reaches a point where the calculation result doesn't make sense to the programming, and it starts displaying wrong info or no info on screen, and cruise is disabled. Try to get someone with VCDS to come for a ride with you and watch/log the outputs of the four wheel speed sensors simultaneously and then see if there is one sensor that starts to show data that diverges from what the others are saying at higher road speeds.

That would make no difference, no sensor in gearbox relating to any gears. My Fabia lost cruise control due to a crack in the plastic vacuum pipe to servo, took ages to find that.

Sorry I missed this. The reason I haven't done it that way is because the compromises one has to make for a shared platform. The reason Model Y is lighter than similar sized EV from legacy auto is that there is no unnecessary parts sharing with ICE vehicles. As I said, need properly designed EV's, completely from blank sheet without legacy baggage. Another example, BMW i3 starts at 1.2 T. About similar to Polo/Fiesta, which start from just under 1.2 T. Ionity are 800v-first chargers. Tesla and VAG MEB cars are 400v cars. At 500 amp max, absolute maximum 400v can pull from Ionity is 200kW, but that requires pack at 400v, which isn't the case when at low SoC. Tesla NMC Pack voltage tend to be just over 300v when at low SoC. So maximum charge rate is only 160 kW. Tesla v3 superchargers are said to be able to deliver 800 amps to achieve headline figure of 250 kW at low SoC. https://cleantechnica.com/2019/03/08/supercharger-v3-shocking-power-smart-strategy-by-tesla-charts/ This is my MY LR cell voltages: Cells are arranged in 96s. I think charge points really need to advertise by voltage and current. Because (just like remaining miles guess-o-meter) max charging power is dependent on cars batteries.

I would suggest that 20-30 minutes would be a time many (most?) people would find acceptable.

Clear in the OP that they bought a vRS petrol.

If it was a portable audio cd audio player it would work via the aux socket. But the entertainment jnit has no ability to control and instruct that laptop cd rom drive despite the USB being plugged in.

The OP hasn't said its a tdi like has been assumed and there's no car info in a signature. Looking back at an old post, I think it's the petrol vrs ea888 gen 3. Anyway, despite this, exactly the same comments apply as already made by responders. I've just replaced our at 75k, 6.5 years. Bit of a pain of a job on ghe drive. Having seen first hand the TMU in all its glory I wouldn't expect any different than another 6 years or 70k for the new one, maximum. Mine was leaking pretty small amounts through the plastic shaft bushes and leaked into the pcb housing and fried the electronics. There's a lot of rotational movement by servo motor running due to the constant adjustment to optimise engine temps and warm up and the design just isn't made to last forever. Consider it a maintenance item and you did well to get 9 years.

u can find all the part numbers for that illustration here.

Thanks a lot everyone for your kind help! It has been appriciated a lot... You may not realise this (as it hasn't been told enough) but for you to be here and reply messages of some strangers might make their day and help them out a lot which they would never get otherwise. I would like to thank each and everyone of you from the buttom of my heart for being here and replying to us as some of us are very unfortunate not to get to learn any of these car knowledge from our families, friends etc. Trying to watch some videos on Youtube to learn some life skills are too tiring. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

"A great mind once said 'I'm not going to modify it'. And for he was right. For he was not going to modify it... someone else was going to do it for him!" Well with the Darkside Octi being stripped for bits because I've moved on (And sort of partly a blessing because ULEZ area and that car wouldn't have been a good mix!) I stepped up a bit and landed a very decent 2017 face lift VRS estate. It's very clean, low miles and it's been looked after really well. I had always been a bit meh about autos, but with such a heavy clutch in the old Octi and the M25 being stop-start all the time during home time from work, I thought I'd have another look at them. Took a bit of adjustment, but I'm quite liking it now. Not really used the paddles or the semi-auto with the stick, just slipped it into D and went on my way. Because it was so clean underneth and hardly any rust at all, I thought this would be the best time to try out this Lanogaurd I see posted everywhere online. So washed the under carrage, dried it out with the blower and set to work with the spray bottle. People didn't lie when they said it smells like wet sheep... Will report back next year and see if there's any change or difference. Other than that, I know I always say I'm not going to modify it to my parents... bbuuutttt... I did say *I* wasn't going to mod it, someone else will 😂

@Graham Butcher You quoted 46 minutes ago what i typed about in the comments someone posted about the electric MINI Cooper loaded on deck 8 at Bristol. Are we all dealing with a full deck here?

1 no, it works fine on mine 2 this dépends on your phone, my Galaxy s23 doesn't ask 3 mine had this issue with a cheapo AliExpress cable. I switched to the Samsung cable and every thing is ok since

All the EVs on the Freemantle Highway are largely undamaged, maybe a bit of a smoky smell, might need a couple of air fresheners.

I 100% agree with what you say, and I never said that it was an EV that started any of these ship fires, so perhaps everyone can now delete that thought from their minds, please. However, it is still a fact that when an EV battery goes into thermal runaway they are exceedingly dangerous and the venting gases are not only highly toxic but burn like a rocket motor shooting flames out sideways, igniting anything within range. The internet is awash with reports and videos from all over the world from fire brigades explaining the problems that these vehicles create, normal car fires can be extinguished with ease, sadly that is not the case with EV and also leave behind massive volumes of highly toxic water etc that also adds further issues EV cars are LESS likely to catch fire than a ICE car, but when they do, they can be a real nightmare to deal with, surely people can see that for themselves.

If you have the MFSW,while AA is on the screen try pushing and holding the `Speaking Head' button down on the steering wheel. ( Multi Function Steering Wheel ) Thanks. AG Falco

I have Michelin Primacy 3 (fitted to new car) and at 4yrs Mot advisory on tyre cracking after only 10k miles. MOT tester said it was very common even with more expensive tyres. Many experiences described online. Some associate it with low mileage stopping good mixing of anti-aging components in the tyre. Possibly but not convinced. I believe it’s due to the use of micro plastics as a filler in the tyre replacing some of the carbon black used. Micro plastics have been found to be the #1 polluter of londons roads - not exhaust emissions.

Thanks for your replies @toot. Those poor consumption figures that I posted about a couple of years ago happened a few months after air filter was replaced. I put that down to an anomaly as since then have been getting 52+ mpg (mainly motorway runs). Usually fill up at Asda in the south London/Surrey area. Since plugs were done a couple of years ago have put in a few tanks of V-power/Tesco Momentum, and also used one of those Hydra Pic treatments so was a bit surprised plugs have gone after only 20k. They were bought from ECP - like you say maybe down to a snide set perhaps? Coil packs were changed a couple of months after plugs.

That's good to hear. I'm currently driving a 2014 Greenline and have been eyeing the RS for a while now. Just done the service at 225k km, got a good deal to trade it for the RS. I guess with cars becoming more and more complicated computer wise, they are bound to have a few bugs and glitches, but the launch of mk4 seemed to be worse than normal. Glad they fixed most of the big problems.

HI, sorry about the confusion, I was doing it from memory and after checking out a few cars for her, all these numbers / letters end up in a blur! It was a 2015 1.2 TSI SE L 5dr DSG.

It seems we get closer : S22 Ultra was not even in the list and now says supported with Android 12, also from S23 series we see S23+ but not compatible yet : Here is where you can check : https://compatibilitylist.skoda-auto.com/?appVIN=&appLanguage=en-US

@Graham ButcherWhat are they not reporting, UK car crashes and accidents and none accidents and burning to death in an EV, or people topping themselves in a vehicle? On the car parking! There are mainstream media / publishers running anti-EV campaigns so there are going to be plenty articles to find where landlords / factors / local authorities are banning BEV,s or Hybrids or dual fuel vehicles, or camper vans with Gas Bottles from their premises. Or ferries or tunnel operators banning / restricting them travelling on or through. It is a brave new world dawning. Space trips to the moon and beyond happening and peoples daily drives are 'death traps' and fire hazards that need parked in open spaces away from anyone and everything else.

The thing is that I have stored among my many hard drives of many TBs tons of referencing evidences to I think back up all of my claims apart from the EV's not being allowed into these upmarket apartments that are springing up all along the Thames now of which some colleagues have told me about and I see no reason why they should be telling me lies. One said that his neighbour was complaining because the landlord had made him park his PHEV Range Rover outside and away from the building because of the insurance stipulations on the building. I just don't have the time to go trawling through the drives looking for them at the present moment. Now if your reference to the main stream media means TV and newspapers, well I gave up on those years ago since they became effectively muted by those that seek to control the narrative and treat us all like mushrooms and thus use the MSN to manipulate us in whatever fashion suits their purpose. I can't remember the last time I read a newspaper or watched the news, just to be fed a bunch of lies.😉

I'm sure the OP and most readers would realise but I would add the caveat "driving in a straight line"

You could also try Carwow, simpler and you deal directly with the supplying dealer. Worked for me, local dealer couldn't match Carwow quote but I've had all servicing etc done excellently by the local dealer.

Fair enough, comparing 400V architecture cars with 800V. I agree that 800V is the way forward to improve charge times, due to the 500A current limit with CCS2 standard. 200kW is the max any 400V car can pull on a standard CCS2 plug. I'm not sure what Tesla do with their Superchargers but that is not standard CCS2. You state you've never seen a VW or Skoda charging at high speed and I believe you, so I hope you'll believe me when I say I have gotten 140kW (Washington services 350kW chargers) and regularly get 100+kW since the V3.2 software update, on the rare occasions I do charge away from home. I have had one truly disappointing charge at Beverley MFG 150kW charger, where I initially got 80kW but then someone else plugged in to the other CCS port and charge speed dropped to 40kW and soon was down to 30kW - I like to think that was a charger issue rather than car issue but I cannot prove it. Its all anecdotal so I'd say MEB are no worse or better than other 400V cars, certainly not as bad as you made out. MEB cars do seem to be sensitive to being at a low SoC to get the fastest charge speeds, anything above 15% when plugging in will start charging at a lower rate of charge and it gets worse after that.

Look at an EV6 and i5 which in AWD weigh about 2 tonnes. That’s no worse than their SUV models with an auto gearbox and lighter than plenty of other popular SUV. We don’t hear stories of car parks being strengthened because everyone drives around in 2+ tonnes SUV. I can only give my opinion but obviously agree. No family or business driver objects to a bathroom and coffee stop. Hour long charges Gower extend the journey time too much, particularly if you need to queue.

As used to be recommended! Another benefit for them. From the above if its correct amongst all the hearsay, then the original design pump was fit for purpose, it was the cheaper to manufacture later (first?) revision that caused all the problems. So not only were they screwing UK customers to have cam belts fitted on a time/mileage basis that was not the case in the rest of the world they were insisting that the waterpump had to be replaced at the same time and then fitting an inferior part which would subsequently fail and in doing so reinforce the legend that the pump must be changed as a precaution when the cam belt was unnecessarily replaced. And even with this superb merry go round that they created I surmise that the dealerships were screwing up this magic money tree so much that it was costing Skoda UK too much in claims that they did the recent U turn over the cam belt replacement, less income for the dealers but that is not a concern to Skoda UK, they still have all the other means of extracting money from owners who cannot or will not do their own repairs. A reliable vehicle only benefits the owner and subsequent owners, not the manufacturer other than selling more units at a slightly higher price, and certainly not the dealers.

You are joking right? You have a nine year old car bought second hand and you think the manufacturers should be shelling out for a repair, at what stage does that cease to be reasonable? 10 years, 15, 20? And for how many owners down the line? When I started motoring you were lucky if a new car got through its first MOT without needing chassis welding, Lancias were being brought back from the owners and crushed before they got to the first MOT. A vehicle would never get beyond 40K miles before needing a decoke and valve grind, by 60K miles the valve train would be rattling and the crankcase smoking with piston blowby, the big ends and main bearings would not last much longer. Exhausts? Lucky if the OE one lasted till the first MOT, the replacement would manage 18 months on average. Vehicles have got far more reliable and for some reason peoples expectations of the manufacturer have become much higher even when they did not buy the vehicle new and after many years. They still dont owe anybody anything after the initial warranty period which is double what it was not so long ago.

Lovely afternoon at Jbs for a stage 1 remap, made good figures on 99ron 148.3bhp 175.3ft/lbs mods are Nox intake and elbow adapter (from 🇧🇷) Nox Charge pipe + DV Apr Coil Packs Custom 2.25” Flexi back exhaust 99ron Petrol

I'd go with 13 https://www.tunershop.shop/wheel-bolt-silver-m14x1-5-ball-seat-r13-38mm-for-skoda.html

Yes CRLB

I'll just add my two pence to point out non-monetary points, which some people value, as I have to sometimes justify Indy prices to myself. This will be different to your situation. Indy garage: may be more convenient / accessible during workday and can sometimes have better booking availability. may offer free courtesy car (which can indirectly give you a warm fuzzy feeling of their competence if you get given a 200,000 mile dinosaur that drives wonderfully) should update your SKODA digital service record Quality of their inspection report / photos / measurements may be of higher quality / value / assurance - eg wheels off brake inspection/measurement Service packages might do more work / inspection or use premium parts than main dealer so it costs more than you expected. Eg for some reason mine itemises an engine flush. Just ask them. Customer service / banter / technical talk - you can speak to the technician who actually worked on your car compared with receptionist who doesn't understand why water pump doesn't need replacing with timing belt change on EA211 engines. Will offer competitive prices for repairs. Main dealer: At least 2 year parts and labour guarantee Should wash and vac Should have infinite free snacks and drinks give you FOMO/FOBO when looking around showroom "might" update software - I had "Recall 90k1" one year. Others may have different experience generally. Sometimes have fixed price offers (although I haven't seen one for ages). Might provide [office] space to sit and do remote work in Can give you opportunity to steal those tiny bottles of screenwash I would be wary of "generally take better care of your car and they have often have more knowledge/experience" argument as you don't know how skoda technicians vs independent technicians are competent. You have to assure yourself on a case by case basis. In terms of quality of work / guarantees, I have zero worry with quality done at Skoda Main dealer and I know there's a path to complaints (if I'm paying the price for sure I'm going to make a fuss). It's worth searching other skoda service centres. Prices for service oil and inspection can be as low as £156 (Sunderland). For new front pads and discs this ranges from £375 (a "maybe") to £435 (nope).

Ironically I’ve had Michelin CrossClimates, which are all seasons, on my past three cars and recently fitted them to my Karoq and have never experienced sidewall cracking (ooh er missus 😏)

No worries, only 111,000 more miles to go !